[…
because knowing both sides of a coin I really think that there’s a
love story willing to be told and willing to unfold. I’m willing to
interpret the love story, because I believe it is the stories that
will save us, will bring us together. And my
thesis statement for today’s talk is that the relationship between
east and west needs to be and can be fixed via pop
culture.
(Laugh) I’m
going to try to back it up! The
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said:”There are no
languages required in a music world. That is the power of music and
that’s the power of the heart. Through this promotion of arts we
can better understand the culture and civilizations of other
people. In this era of instability and intolerance we need to
promote better understandings through the power of
music.” The UN
Secretary General thinks we need more music, and I think he’s
right. Music
and arts have always played the key role in my life, in building
relationships, replacing what once was ignorance fearing of hatred
with acceptance, friendship and even love. So I
have strong case for growing in music between cultures, because it
happened to me earlier in life. I was
born and raised up in New York, barely spoke a word of Chinese. I
didn’t know the difference between Taiwan and
Thailand. (Laugh) I was
American as blablaba(听不清) until one day on a third grade
playground, the inevitable finally happened. I got teased for being
Chinese. Every
kid just teased for making fun on the playground, but this was
fundamentally different and I knew it right then and there. This
kid, let’s call him Bryan the Cowboy… He
started making fun of me, saying ”Chinese, Japanese, Dirty knees,
Look at these!” (Laugh) The
kids started laughing at me and it hurts! I can
still remember how I felt, I felt shamed, I felt embarrassed, but I
laughed along with them, with everybody. I didn’t know what else to
do. It was like having out-body experience, as if I could laugh at
that Chinese kid on the playground with all the other American kids
because I was one of them. Right?
Wrong! On many levels. And I
was facing first but definitely not the last time the harsh reality
that I was minority. In
Rochester, which in those ages, Asian population was about 1%. And
I was confused. I wanted to punch Bryan, I wanted to hurt him for
hurting me in that situation. But he was masculine, stronger than
me and he will kick my butt and he would do that so I just took it
in. And I didn’t tell anyone, share anyone with these feelings and
I just held them in and let them repressed. Those
feelings through surface in a strangely therapeutically for me
through music. It was
no coincidence that around that time I started ply violin, guitar
and drums, I soon discovered that playing music or singing, other
kids would, for a brief moment, forget about my race of color and
accept me and the be able to see who I truly am, as a human being
who’s emotional spiritual curious about the world and has a need
for love just like everyone else. And by
the sixth grade, guess who asked me if I could join him for his
band. (Bryan) Bryan! I said
yes and that’s Bryan and me together, form the elementary school
rock band called “Nirvana”. (Laugh) I’m
not kidding, I was in a rock band called “Nirvana” before Kurt
Cobain’s band. So when Nirvana came out, Bryan and I were like:
Hey, he’s stealing our name! What
really attracted to me is that music at this young age and still I
love about it is that it breaks down the walls between us and show
us so quickly the truth that we are much more alike than we are
different. Then
in high school, I learnt that music was not just about connecting
with others, like Bryan and I were connected through music. It was
powerful tool of influence and inspiration. Sam
Nguyen was my high school janitor. He was an immigrant from Vietnam
who barely spoke a word of English. Sam
swept the floors and cleaned the bathroom of our school for twenty
years. He
never talked to the kids and the kids never talked to
Sam. But
one day, before the opening night before our school’s annual
musical he walked up to me holding a letter. I was
taken to the back and I was thinking: Why Sam the janitor would
approaching me? He
gave me this letter that it was draw off in a shaky hand and
written in all capitals, and I read it: inspire her.
